russ-vdub - mk2 overhaul, don't mention the ban!

[jv]

[russ-vdub]

Thanks jv

Well as it says i'll give you lot a bit of background on my car. Picked it up about a year ago now, 150,000 on the clock, slow as hell, £500. Before i bought this I had previously bought exactly the same model, year, and colour with some major wiring issues to boot, £200  with 130,000. Sadly after leaving it outside for a couple of weeks at a mates house it got completely full of water from everywhere possible. So I decided on breaking the car and keeping it for parts.

When the car was running it was extremely rapid so I decided to rebuild the head and slap a Piper cam in it. I then swapped out the cruddy 150,000 miler and put in the good engine. But being new to all this stuff I completely over looked rebuilding the bottom end so that’s where we are today, worn piston rings and major power loss

I'm not sure what Jv is talking about a ban but anyway 

Right as I now have 33 days remaining until I'm back on the road, work began instantly! Tuesday night I began to disconnect everything insight ready for removal on Wednesday. I had a couple of mates over to kinda assist (oldskwl is the dude second from the left and sam-vdub is the scary looking fella on the right)



So first night drained ALL of the water from the system. From the previous swap I knew what to expect and I didn’t want wet feet this time unplugged all the bits and bobs and this is it.



Wednesday me and oldskwl cracked on with the driveshafts which is a proper ball ache as some of you will know, especially as it was on the floor as opposed to a ramp. I took a couple of piccys of how we went about doing the offside shaft as its well tricky to get in there.

I used a mother of a cable tie to hold down the rubber boot to make it easier to remove the bolts. This could then be rotated depending on the bolt being un-done. Trust me this helped so much!



Then went onto the other side, cable tied again, and gave it a crack. We removed the wheel to gain more access and then with two extension bars, a screwdriver in the disc to stop it spinning we were on our way. I think the picture shows this clearly enough for you to see how we did it.



Exhaust was then disconnected and then we began on the mounts. Once this was done it was pretty straight forward sliding the lump out on a couple of trolley jacks with some wood under the sump and gearbox to lower it onto



Just a little pic of me bashing out on my decks after a knuckle cutting session.



Today after work I picked up an engine stand off a mechanic matey of mine to make life easier. I was supposed to be getting the gearbox, inlet and exhaust off tonight but I finish work early tomorrow so I’m guna crack on then, so for now…I’m off down the local, walking obvioulsy!

[russ-vdub]

Ok so not much happened on Friday as I thought it would, didn’t know you needed longer bolts for gearbox to fit it to the engine stand. So that'll have to wait until Monday before I start taking off the sump and getting the crank out. Getting around is proving harder then I first thought.

Yesterday I got the gearbox off, with the added hassle of the 10mm bolt on the bottom bell housing which was a nightmare to undo with the engine on the floor.



Next thing was to take the head off. Again was a hassle with the lump on the floor as when I tried to undo the bolts the engine spun round. Kindly my mum gave me a hand to hold it while I cracked the bolts off.



My Piper cam and pulley.



I then took off the end cover of the box as the release bearing needed renewal, piece of cake, and you get to see some of the gears which is an engineering feat if you ask me.



This is where the release bearing sits the housing.



Finally a little pic to show how high the front end goes without a lump in it, proper gangster hehe.



So for now I’m leaving the car until Monday, lots of college work to do tomorrow *gay* and I’m going out raving tonight in Bournemouth, Randal and Brookes Brothers, Drum and Bass heaven!

[russ-vdub]

Ok been a proper bum the past week, had loadsa sh!t from a poor college report and kinda wishing I’d never started an advanced apprenticeship, can't be arsed with the work load but anyway. Enough moaning, went to B&Q on Monday to get myself some longer bolts to get the engine on the stand, £1 each, what a piss take but oh well. Didn’t do much Monday except drain all the oil, took the sump off, oil pump, oil cooler and other bits ready to get the crank out. I have more pictures but i left them on my work computer Will upload if necessary.



That was it really for the rest of the week until Saturday. Me and sam-vdub took the flywheel and clutch out, didn’t have the correct tool for the flywheel so it had to come off the engine stand for a short while. Getting the pressure plate off was interesting, I found using a large cable (again) and a socket on the crank pulley was a sure fast way to stop the bugger spinning whilst trying to undo the 6 bolts, thread locked I might add



We then put then the engine back on the stand and took all the pistons out, obviously taking extra care to make sure the bits where removed so they could be replaced exactly as they were taking out.



Now you can see all the way through to the floor, wow … lol



I’m having a slight bit of hassle getting two bearing cap bolts out on the pulley end because there isn’t enough space to get a socket on, so if anyone knows how to get around this, a PM would be great

Once I have the crank out, I’m shipping the block off to my mechanic matey to re-hone the bores and to fit some new shells, rings, seals and bearings. Been quoted about £200 all inc. for the labour and parts, very happy with that! So next weekend I should be uploading some pictures of it going back together.

Oh and a lightened and balanced flywheel will be getting slapped on in the process 

[russ-vdub]

Ok so got all the bolts off for the crank, so started tapping the side wall of the timing side to find it is positioned with dowels. Seems ok except the fact the fookin Haynes doesnt say you need to remove the timing pulley!! Most annoyed So now everything is disconnected I have now way whatsoever of holding the crank in postion without the bloody thing spinning! *Extreme anger towards the Haynes*

So I'm guna visis Mark (my mechy) and see if a blast with a windy guna will get the bugger pulley off without too much hassle. Once this is done I'm leaving it with him to get re-honed, blah blah.

Friday will be dropping off the flywheel at a local engineering company for balancing Should hopefully have the engine back together and refitted by next Friday. Could do it sooner but I know me, and I know i'm a lazy fudger. Last Minute Mike for sure.

I'll post some pictures up Saturday of the rings and bores being done if I can

[russ-vdub]

Wayhay result, just been quoted £130 for a full bottom end to be lightened and balanced. Thats conrods, crankshaft and the flywheel! A local engineering company 5mintues from my house BARGIN!

That makes a grand total of £330 for the whle rebuild...Sweet! She's guna be a little rocket after this treatment. Back to Triton for another rolling road sesh, obviously after a couple of hundred miles

[russ-vdub]

Ok, engine is getting re-honed this weekend, finally! also last night my mate bought over some cobra seats for me to have a butchers at. He wanted £100 with sub frames, they are good condition. The frames are custom build jobby but they look the biz. The dude who made them had even made a proper hinge mech for the passenger side seat, well chuffed. Thing was they were sat too low at the back, pimp lowride style so i told my mate i'd have to get the welder out so he knocked off £20 £80 for a pair of buckets, bargin!

These are the seats i got but with a grey insert instead of blue. may get them retrimed in that blue but thats for future. So that'll be a task for the weekend, just need some decent angle to cut up now ....

Will update with picture later today

[russ-vdub]

So been slacking on the pictures, will get on it tonight hopefully. Only 8 days til my ban is up now Got my license back Friday i forgot to mention, SP30 for my offence which is a steal, was deffo excepting an SP50 but i'm not guna complain!

Saturday I went to Marks, saved myself £80 and did the honing myself, its a piece of cake just very teadious. Took 3 hours to do the lot but the bores look like new. Also got the rings off the pistons and cleaned out all the carbon from the grooves, to finished just wire brushed the side faces to clean the rest of the carbon off. Mark is taken a piston and shell to his engineerers who will find all the right bits that i'll need for the rebuild, and i'm heading down VW today to get the crankshaft seals and so on.

Once this has all been done, I will take the lump down to tuners who will lighten up all the bits

Time is tight but i'll get it sorted......I hope ..

[russ-vdub]

Sorry for all the lack of pictures again, another text update.

Checked my dates and when i thought i had 8 days left, it was actually 15days left, I am that retarded sometimes!

Anyhoo went to VW on Monday, gave me quote for all the parts. £160 inc. vat The guy told me to go to GSF, not worth the money in this case. So went down the road, £32 for the same bits! Do the math, crazy how dealers get away with it. Problem was GSF don't do imtermeadiate shaft o-rings Had to get that genuine. £6.33 for a fooking o-ring! Daylight robbery.

Enough about that, Mark is having trouble getting all the shells and things which is really holding things up. Spoke to the tuners and I need to drop the crankshaft assembled and the pistons to them by tomorrow inorder to get the lot back by next Wednesday. I have a feeling this is guna be a manic last few days of my ban.

Saturday the buckets are getting valetted with my hot water hoover jobby, and then welded up to a better height. Also i'm going to bolt in my strut braces, front and rear, which I've been meaning to do for months and months.

For now thats all.